Light day on the Solent

The Raymarine Warsash Spring Series experienced another quiet day for the fourth week, with winds from the north at about force 2-3 in the Central Solent on 6 April.

With tide pushing boats over the line, starts for the White Group were tense. For the first start of the Mumm 30s all but one boat was over the line. The committee were able to establish the virtuous yacht and insist all others came back. Only one failed to do so.
Gregor Logan's
Highlander III was one of the boats over the line but she went back and then went on to win the race by 52 seconds ahead of Dave Ovington's
Ovington Like Boats.

The second race required a general recall before the fleet was away. Ovington took the top slot this time with
Highlander going into third place behind
Sardonyx. It was
Highlander's worst finish of the series but she still remains comfortably in first place for the series, 13 points clear of Offbeat, which managed a fifth and a fourth this week.

The Hunter 707s are the largest fleet in the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series and racing is highly competitive. As is traditional needed two general recalls for their first race and the threat of disqualification after two more recalls in the second race. With winds offshore the committee is restricted in the length of windward beat which meant that the fleet was closely bunched right up the first mark. Both times
Black Sheep shone through to win and build up a five point lead in the series over
Charlie Fish and
Betty.

The small fleet of Sonatas which make up IRC 5 were left hunting for the finish after the Committee set a course round the cans but with a latitude and longitude waypoint for the finish. Not equipped with electronic navigational equipment, the leading boats had trouble locating their finish. First to find the line was Toby Gorman in
Missred to increase her lead at the top of the series.

In IRC Division 1
Volvo For Life Team Tonic continued to set the pace, but with Mark Jardine at the helm
Kinky Black Underwear, a Max Fun 35, powered to second place. Her previous best was seventh.

In the X332 class
Reckless Rat continued to build a score going from second last week to first this week. Russell Hodgson and
X-therapist crossed the line eight seconds ahead of
Reckless Rat but had to settle for second position because of a worse handicap. However Hodgson still leads the series.

Joanna Martin, one of the women skippers in the series, narrowly managed to keep top slot in the Sigma 38 class after coming third behind main rival
Mefisto and winner
Highland Spirit. In the Sigma 33 class
Scaramouch notched up another win to remain on track at the top of the series rankings.

Consistency in the Bowsprit class is paying off for Sarah and Michael Wallis on the J/109
Jahmali. Although they are without a win two seconds, a fourth and a third on Sunday put them at the top of the rankings.